Bruce Livingstone, founder of iStockphoto (which has since been acquired by Getty Images), has launched Stocksy, an artist-owned stock photography co-operative. Under its licensing terms, photographers receive 50% of each royalty transaction. Each photographer also receives equity and is entitled to a share of the co-operative's annual profits. This launch comes hot on the heels of a recent controversial deal between popular stock photo service Getty Images and Google, in which Google Drive's image vault gives public access to over 5000 Getty images with very little compensation to the photographers.

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA (March 25, 2013) — Stocksy, a digital licensing co-op launching March 25, 2013, is a new concept in the world of stock photography: An online marketplace owned collectively by its photographer-members and dedicated to paying them the maximum fees possible for their work.

Founded by Bruce Livingstone, who invented microstock with iStockphoto—which he sold to Getty Images in 2006 —Stocksy was built out of his experience shaping the ground ﬂoor of the sector. Stocksy is a cooperative designed to respect the work of the artist and whose very system of shared ownership and proﬁt sharing allows for real, sustainable careers for all participants in the marketplace.

Under its revolutionary model, photographers will receive a 50% royalty on each transaction and 100% on extended licenses; what’s more, 90% of all proﬁts will be divided among members at year’s end. Photographers who are accepted into the co-op also receive equity and have a real say in how the business is operated.

The Stocksy team. Founder Bruce Livingstone is the second guy standing from the right (with the tattooed-arm)

'We wanted to create a marketplace for photographers that was not only democratic, but fair and sustainable,' Livingstone says. 'There’s no reason these artists shouldn’t be able to earn a living from what they produce. We believe that through this equitable, participatory structure and a straightforward, transparent compensation system - combined with the knowledge of the marketplace we bring to the table - Stocksy will quickly amass the ﬁnest pool of photographic content on the Web.'

The Canadian-born Livingstone followed several divergent paths - including theology studies at the University of Calgary and drumming in punk-rock band The Bittermen - before starting iStockphoto in 2000. Initially it was a free service, but growing trafﬁc required him to begin charging small, incremental fees to cover bandwidth costs; thus was microstock licensing born.

When Getty acquired iStockphoto, it also acquired him. But Livingstone saw that the democratization that iStockPhoto brought to the marketplace didn’t go far enough. More innovation was required to bring fairness into the equation.

The conception of Stocksy brings Livingstone full circle to the dawning days of iStockphoto - but this time, substantive royalties and member ownership are built into its design. 'Photographers have never had this level of participation and control in the stock world,' he says. 'We believe Stocksy represents an opportunity to change the industry permanently - and for the better.'

I'll reply to you what I replied below to the person who asked the same question less than half a page down. Bruce sold it a number of years ago and the non-compete agreement has expired. Which isn't to say Getty isn't taking it's pound of flesh. They have cancelled the iStock accounts of at least two contributors. One was a former iStock employee who's non-compete had also expired. More significantly was Sean Locke who has sold around 1 million images on iStock and had done little more than complain about Getty's practices re Google Drive and be loosely involved the FB group associated with Stocksy. Here is his blog post about it. http://seanlockephotography.com/2013/02/11/a-change-in-things/

Thanks for the answer. I hope he will find another good site for him soon. As for the Stocksy, do you trust him that he won't sold the site again in future.? You will end up looking for another place again.

Another way to see it is that iStock was simply an inevitable business reaction to an unnatural market condition. If it wasn't Bruce Livingston, it would have been someone else.

Getty and other traditional agencies let only a few photographers play in their sandpit. The standard Getty rejection letter gave you the feeling that they didn't wany you to try submit again . . . ever.

Getty and other agencies built a wall to keep aspiring photographers out and prices artificially high. No matter how well lit, "Household iron isolated on white" should not fetch $250 for web use.

When the dam wall broke, did Getty counter with a "midstock" agency to move high quality files away from the micros? Not at all, they arrogantly dissed the whole microstock movement until it was too late for them.

Will low pricing last? Not at all - pricing for good images is heading north again - but now from a stable and realistic demand/supply base that will ultimatley prove to be both healthy and sustainable.

The 'iphone generation' hipster style desaturated images was noted by me too. And when signing up they let you know that if "your" images are suiting "their" taste they will contact you.

Especially as a starting stock site I would take an as wide as possible 'quality' approach, and leaving taste a bit out of it. I also would offer news/recent events as part of the collection, I know myself that this is often asked.

Could be a good idea but has sadly kicked off with no visible 'about' page, an annoying, constantly scrolling view of 'images', a rather obscure search box, over simplistic 'price list' and an invitation to 'sign up' for what? They seem to be more concerned with the location of their office than securing image buyers. Looks as if they need a lesson in 'real world' stock sales. Rather a bad start:(

Surely when he sold his company they got him to sign an agreement to NOT compete with them with a new business?Anyway, TWO founders (count them) with huge foreheads is a great start!I would certainly join this thing if that was my thing.

Bruce sold it a number of years ago and the non-compete agreement has expired. Which isn't to say Getty isn't taking it's pound of flesh. They have cancelled the iStock accounts of at least two contributors. One was a former iStock employee who's non-compete had also expired. More significantly was Sean Locke who has sold around 1 million images on iStock and had done little more than complain about Getty's practices re Google Drive and be loosely involved the FB group associated with Stocksy. Here is his blog post about it. http://seanlockephotography.com/2013/02/11/a-change-in-things/

Many seasoned stock shooters with multi-thousand image portfolios at other stock sites have been turned away already. They have a "look" and production quality they are striving for and the bar is very high. If you want to cut your teeth on stock and earn some lens money you're better off building the skills and a portfolio and somewhere like Shutterstock or Dreamstime and then applying to Stocksy. You could try iStockphoto as well, but be warned Getty is trying it's best to give you nothing (or as little as possible) and take all your work. Look into the Google Drive deal referenced above if you want to see what I mean.

Fantastic! It's the Mountain Equipment Co-op of stock photography. I got a form letter on Flickr from Getty asking me to sign up with them. No way. But Stocksy's kind of worker self-management is the way of the future (and clearly threatening to some of you folks).

"Stocksy's kind of worker self-management is the way of the future." Agreed. This does have potential to change the industry. Self-owned businesses provide more job satisfaction and out-perform public corporations that live for quarterly earnings per share. This venture holds out the promise of giving artists a fair deal long-term, not only in its start-up phase. Kudos to Livingstone.

It is also the way of the past, and I mean that in a good way. The famous Magnum photo agency started when Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, and other independent photographers wanted to get away from their agencies and launched their own in 1947.

Participants entitled to a share of annual profits? Are there any? How are the shares apportioned? Perhaps this way: A) person submits one fabulous photo that reaps $100k in royalties and gets X% of zero profits; B) person submits 100k photos that get no royalties and gets the 0% of zero profits; and C) person who submits no photos but, as entrepreneur, eventually sells the company and does very well. Kudos to "C." Ingenious.

Lol...Beards, tattoos, the word "sustainable", pictures tagged "Portland, Oregon" and former musicians who weren't good enough to make it in music so they defaulted to photography. Wow...How many times can you say "Hipster"?

The founder(s) of the coop say " Stocksy, a digital licensing co-op launching March 25, 2013, is a new concept in the world of stock photography: An online marketplace owned collectively by its photographer-members."

While I applaud the effort the fact is that MIRA.Com was, as far as I know, the first photographer stock agency co-op. I was executive director of ASMP from 1988 through 2002. ASMP set the wheels in motion to form MIRA by securing the capital and photographers to make it work. That was in 2000. The 9/11/2001 tragedy held it back as the economy went bad, but it did survive and is licensing images today. Check out www.mira.com.

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